Amritsar: Bengal bowlers showed enormous discipline to skittle out Punjab for a paltry 147 before reaching 76 for no loss as they completely dominated the proceedings during a Ranji Trophy group D encounter, here today.
Harbhajan Singh playing his first four-day game in over 21 months, will hardly be pleased with the performance of his batsmen as they could only play 46 overs during the day.
Opener Shubhman Gill scored 63 off 102 balls with nine boundaries but none of the Punjab batsmen could cross individual score of 20.
Medium pacer B Amit (3/31 in 9 overs) and left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik (3/41 in 17 overs) were the wreckers in-chief.
Once Jiwanjot Singh (13) was trapped leg-before by an arm ball from Pramanik, Punjab never had any worthwhile partnerships.
Shubhman and keeper Abhishek Gupta (15) did add 33 runs for the fifth wicket but that was certainly not enough as wickets fell at regular intervals.
When Bengal batted, their young openers -- left-handed Abhishek Raman (42 batting) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (33 batting) safely negotiated the Punjab attack. Bengal need another 72 runs to take first innings lead.
Skipper Harbhajan bowled six overs on the day and went for 27 runs.
Brief Scores
Group D
At Amritsar: Punjab 1st Innings 147 (Shubhman Gill 63, Pradipta Pramanik 3/41, B Amit 3/31).
Bengal 1st Innings 76/0 (Abhishek Raman 42 batting, Abhimanyu Easwaran 33 batting).
At Raipur: Services 1st Innings 130 (Diwesh Pathania 4/45). Services 1st Innings 39/0.
At Porvorim: Goa 1st Innings 239 (Keenan Vaz 72, Akshay wakhare 4/50) vs Vidarbha.